


Unconventional Convention Meetings

by TheIcyMage



Category: Gravity Falls, Transcendence AU - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-11 22:07:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7909384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIcyMage/pseuds/TheIcyMage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Twin Souls fanfiction writer runs into an unusual fan who gives her some pointers. Then she decides to ask for more advice and meets someone who is far from a fan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unconventional Convention Meetings

**Author's Note:**

> I blame this: http://transcendence-au.tumblr.com/post/137148880102/a-twin-souls-fanfic-author-actually-meets-mabel

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” The timid and slightly nasally voice pulled Kaydence from her thoughts. She spun in her office chair to face her friend, a scrawny-looking elven boy who was far bolder in artistic expression than in anything else. From where she was sitting, she caught a glimpse of the sketches he was leaning over. The scene staring back at her brought a warmth to her face that she quickly treated with her inexplicably eternally chilly hands.  
“Absolutely! Lately my fics have been exploding with views on Our Own Archive and I’d love to get people’s personal opinions on my work. Only my readers will recognize the icon and know who I am, and the pins and prints we sell can cover for con tickets.”   
It was the same argument she used to convince her parents to let them go to FandomCon. She had been reciting it so often that it came second nature as a response. But she did have another reason.  
“Besides,” She added, “Your art is amazing and this is going to prove it!”  
“I really don’t think people will like it enough to buy anything. Besides, most of my stuff is original stuff. No one will recognize any characters. It’s probably a waste of money to print all this.”  
“Absolutely not. Your art speaks for itself; even more reason to do this.”  
She kept stringing other reasons and things they would be able to do at the con. Eventually, Angelo gave up with small chuckle and they both returned to their work. Kaydence gave the announcement another look before calling onto Angelo to proofread. Meanwhile, she scanned and tweaked the drawings. No matter how much he protested, they were getting closer to her goal. After this, she was going to use Angelo’s confidence boost to suggest they collaborate on a webcomic. He was one of the few friends that shared Kaydence’s interests, especially supernatural romance dramas, that took her respect of fanworks seriously. She knew he felt the same as her and, secretly, Kaydence believed he actually liked when she strung him along on her crazy ideas. That being said, his timid nature did keep her grounded.   
As cocky as it sounded, Kaydence thought their relationship was very similar to that of Mizar and The Woodsman from the Twin Souls series. Angelo would turn red at the thought, but she often found herself using their friendship as a template for her Woodzar fics.  
\---  
“These are beautiful!” One girl squeed. Kaydence couldn’t resist nudging her friend and giving him the same knowing smile she had been flashing him all day. I told you so.  
“Would you like to buy one? Wall prints are $15, wallet-sized prints are $10, and pins are 5 for $5.”  
“Kay…”  
“Sure! I love collecting pins! Let’s see…”  
Kaydence fished out a pin with a detailed sketch of Alcor posing dramatically, his wings spread out as his arms were folded in a cross on his chest, and plucked out a few of her favorites, “This is the pin for that one, and these are some of my recommendations.”  
“Oh! I’ll take that. And the one with the long-haired angel.” Kaydence grinned. That was an original character. “Say, this looks like that one writer’s icon.”  
Kaydence beamed, “Yep! ‘Gelo here designed my icon.”  
“Hearthstruck!”  
“Yep.”  
“Oh, wow. My mom loves your work! Hold on.”  
Kaydence bagged the first two pins and turned the other pins to better face the other side of the booth. One had Alcor and the Woodsman in a tight embrace; their foreheads were touching and Alcor’s wings were wrapped around their bodies and the shading made the wings look simultaneously like velvet and leathery skin. Another had the upper half of the Woodsman looking up at Gliese, who had redder hair than other interpretations and was being supported by the hands in the antlers. She also set down pins of each main Twin Souls character, a split-down-the-middle portrait of Alcor with more humanism features on the left and extra demonic features on the right, and some of the original designs that she noticed the girl’s eye lingering over.  
“Here she is!” The girl returned with a slightly taller brown-haired woman.  
“Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” The woman offered a hand and a huge grin. When Kaydence took it, the woman’s grip was firm and she shook her hand with much gusto.  
“Your daughter says you are a fan? What works specifically?” Behind her, Kaydence felt her friend scoot past her to where the daughter was looking over the array of pins.  
“Your Twin Souls fics are perfect. I like to tease my brother with the Woodcor ones and that one fic where he has self reflection struck a lot of chords with him. Personally, I like your Woodzar works too. Sometimes I have to pause and laugh because they are so me and my husband, Henry! And I like how you usually make Gliese ou-Mizar and the Woodsman’s kid.”  
“Really? I’m glad you can relate. I try to keep everyone as in-character as possible but always worry about if they’re realistic enough.” She stole a glance at her friend, who was watching the girl examine each pin with scrutiny. “As for Woodsman’s-daughter!Gliese, my friend and I both think she shares a lot of personality traits with the Woodsman and can see a father-daughter connection between them. It’s actually hard to see those two shipped because Woodsman is the same age as her mom and it makes him look like a creepy uncle.” She shrugged, “But to each their own. My OTP is off-cannon so who am I to disagree.”  
The woman began to laugh lightly and abruptly coughed. “Sorry. I just love how passionate you are about that. It’s like my babies are your babies.”  
Kaydence didn’t say anything, but she didn’t hide her confusion.  
“I mean,” the woman corrected, “I care so much about all the characters. I think I have people in my life that they remind me of.”  
“Oh, I totally get that.” Kaydence glanced back at her friend.   
The customer was holding a small plastic bag with the pins and a card with some of Angelo’s social media pages. They seemed to be in a discussion of their own. She caught words like “shading,” and “linework.”  
“One of my favorite things to do is play around with how Gliese’s powers would be different if she inherited them from the Woodsman. Right now I’m working on something where she’s either going to have wood in her bones or can grow vines out of her hair and palms that catch fire. I like the idea of her fire powers, but I can’t see how she would have them if Alcor isn’t her father.”  
“In the books there was a lot of uncertainty around Gliese’s birth. Maybe you could have her have wooden lungs or some other problem and Alcor throws in some of his magic to help.” There was a mischievous glint in the woman’s eye as she spoke, “That’s pretty much how it happened.”  
“Wait, what?” She and Angelo spoke in unison. The daughter was shaking her head.  
“Do you mean in the books? I guess the woodsman did help, but he was more defending their hospital room.” Angelo asked.  
“Maybe,” was all the explanation the woman provided.  
“So, the split portrait,” the daughter started loudly, “I like the color scheme, and the centering is really good. Was it done on paper or tablet?’  
“Oh, well, I sketched it out on paper, then…” The other pair resumed their conversation.  
“Um, was there anything about my writing style that stands out?” Kaydence asked  
“Oh, tons. You’re very action oriented. I noticed you’re very light on dialogue. And the way you describe the sex scenes is great. I like how you focus on the feeling rather than who’s doing what with what.”  
Kaydence could feel her face grow red, but she nodded.  
“Some parts feel like you’re not writing from experience, but I can say some of it is accurate. I could give you some reference, but you probably don’t want that.”  
It was an out, but Kaydence had to admit she always had the hardest time writing those scenes. When she wrote them, they were always what she felt necessary to show the progression of their relationship and how the characters felt about each other. But she couldn’t go through it without grimacing, consulting other works, and feeling so flustered that she had to pause and get some water. Still, she could tell that this woman had a similar enough relationship to what she was writing that a tiny part of her wondered if she would regret missing the opportunity to get a reference. And Angelo’s conversation with the woman’s daughter seemed to be giving too great a confidence boost to cut short.  
For whatever reason, she heard herself croak out, “Maybe a little, if you’re comfortable with sharing.”

Somehow, she managed what must have been five minutes of listening before she felt her face get hot again. At that point, however, her vocal chords had shut down. The woman seemed to be too into her story to notice her listener’s discomfort. Kaydence was begining to form a crazy, alternate theory. Maybe this woman was Mizar and she was secretly offended by Kaydence’s work, so this was her own way of getting revenge. That was unlikely on so many levels-Kaydence had asked for it and that would be an essential part in this cooky revenge scheme-and the thought that Mizar was a real woman with a child so different from Gliese was baffling. Yet with each detailed minute, the theory felt more and more true.  
At some point, a new customer must have worked the courage to risk overhearing the conversation to come to their booth. The daughter had looked at them for approximately one second before yelping, “Mooom!”  
“Oh!” The woman looked from her indignant daughter to Kaydence. “Too much?”  
The girl answered for her by stomping over, turning to face the same direction, and holding some of her curly red locks for comparison.   
There was the slam of their cash box. “If I may ask, Mrs. Pines, how did you find my friend’s work?”  
“Well, I was looking through the Woodzar tag on Our Own Archive and she was a few pages in. I wanted to tease my brother with some more realistic fanfiction and he was doing fairly well until I skipped to one of the more...adult chapters. Her work is fun to read and the Woodscor fluff are some of my favorite things to tease him with. Just picture bat wings fluttering quickly and a face as red as your friend’s and you have a good picture.”  
“I see.” Angelo nodded slowly.  
“Speaking of pictures, can I get three of the wall prints of the Woodscor hug?”   
While the woman fished through her purse for her wallet, the two girls stared at each other awkwardly.   
"Did you write that one fic where Gliese gets bullied and the Woodsman pep talks her?"  
It was an earlier work, but she remembered the talk with Angelo that had inspired it. "Yeah."  
"My brother and I read it to our sister when she had an attack in the middle of gym. It really helped."  
The warmth in her cheeks and forehead faded. Something fizzy and warm spread near her heart. "I'm glad." Her cheeks spread in a wide smile.   
"C'mom, 'Cacia, I'm sure we can find an Alcor body here somewhere."  
"For a prank," the girl whispered at Kaydence with a wink. "Coming!"

The mother and daughter had been out of sight for a solid minute before Kaydence and Angelo even glanced at each other. Luckily, another group stopped at their booth to occupy their focus. Five customers later, Kaydence finally turned to the elven boy and he asked.   
"You don't think...?"  
"She's such a mom!!" Kaydence found herself exclaiming in shock.   
"Did I overhear the daughter tell you she had two siblings?"  
"She's a mom with three kids that buys body pillows of Alcor for pranks?!"  
"And prints of Alcor and her presumed husband embracing."  
"I think we just got our first crazy con story."   
That was the last they said on the matter. Both tried not to think about it too hard. Though Kaydence did pull out her phone to write the woman's suggestion for Gliese's powers down. Along with an idea for two original characters. Later, Kaydence was browsing a booth with a mishmosh of anime and American shows. She was eyeing a plushie of a light blue creature holding a large felt leaf. As she sidestepped closer, she felt another body bump against her.   
"Sorry," she cried  
"Oops!" Said the other. The voice was familiar.   
Kaydence recognized the woman's face. Now that there wasn't a booth between them, she could get a better look. The woman had slightly darker hair than she'd imagined in the books, but it was just as long and wavy. She was also about the right height; Kaydence couldn't help noticing that she was almost taller than her. As for her attire, she'd imagined Mizar to be a jeans-and-T-shirt kind of girl. The skirt and sweater were not what she was expecting. Though she was amused by the phrase, "Never be ashamed to enjoy something!" stitched on the front of it. As she stepped back, Kaydence noticed her tennis shoes light up.   
"Oh, you're the girl from earlier!"   
"Yep. Sorry, you were before me," Kaydence gestured to the table of merchandise.   
"There's room for too," the woman stepped aside and smiled.   
The woman didn't initiate further conversation, so Kaydence went back to contemplating her purchase. The sign on this part of the table claimed stuffed toys were $20 to $30. Compared to the prices online, it was more expensive to buy it here, but there was always the risk of items online being magic duplicates. All merchandise that was not explicitly supposed to have magical properties had to be inspected before the seller could enter the convention hall. With a sigh, she pulled out her wallet. She didn't want her aunt and uncle to find two of her baby cousin, after all.   
"It looks like we're getting the same thing," the woman pointed to the plush. "Excuse me, how much for that plush?"  
A Dr. When cosplayer checked their clipboard "30."  
Way too much. It wasn't even that big.   
"It's really soft," They explained in a tired voice, "And each is hand stitched with a dream defender charm."  
"Makes sense. Hey, those Alcor and Mizar dolls are also $30 each, but together they're 2 for $50. Do you think we can get a similar deal?"  
The cosplayer looked like they were about to sigh but quickly put on a smile, “Sorry. That deal is because the characters are offered as a pair.”  
“Oh,” the woman began, “I understand. It’s just that tickets to this convention are so expensive and I’m trying to be the best aunt ever, but I only have so much left in my wallet. We love this movie so much. I used to play it every time her parents had me watch her and she doesn’t get to visit so often.”  
“There are smaller dolls for less and the key chains have been really popular.” They tried.  
“She just had her heart set on that one. Just two for $50, not a dollar less.”  
“How about this? We have these little Alcor hats. You can clip them in your hair or clip it to the doll’s ear. Pay $51 and we’ll throw in 2.”  
“They’re so cute. Okay, we have a deal.” The woman passed them two $20, a $10, and a $1. Kaydence walked with her until they were in a less crowded space and divvied up the plushies and hats. On the way, she thanked her for haggling. She handed the woman the $25 and began to fish for the coins.  
“Don’t worry about that. Consider the had and discount my way of apologizing. I don’t know what I was thinking; that must have been really awkward and embarrassing.”  
“Are you sure? It’s just 50 cents.” The woman nodded, “Okay, thank you. And it’s fine. I should have said something. I was joking with my friend that you could have been the real Mizar and that was your way of getting back at me.”  
“Why would I want to do that? Your works are a genuine source of joy for me.”  
“Wow, thank you.” They each stuffed their purchases into their bags and readjusted some things.   
“So I have a few more minutes on my break? Shall we part ways here, or would it only be a little weird if I asked about your family? If your brother is as much like Alcor as you implied, it must be a ride being his niece or nephew.”  
“It probably is weird, but I’m a proud mom and I can’t resist telling stories about my babies.”  
“Well, then, what are my ‘cousins’ like?”  
“You’ve already met Acacia. She’s an artist, loves climbing into trees, and should never be allowed to babysit if you don’t want your kids getting into trouble. Then there’s my son, Hank…”  
Kaydence ended up returning to her shift a little late, but Angelo forgave her easily. At the end of the day, she knew a lot about this woman and her family and it barely settled in that she had possibly bought plushies of an anime character with Mizar. That night, however, she would not get a wink of sleep as the realization kicked in. She had been writing fanfiction about a real family. Alcor and Mizar were real people and Gliese was the Woodsman and Mizar’s kid and there were two more of them. The world was a more dangerous place than she thought. 

One month later, the incident was a bizarre and completely deniable memory in the back of Kaydence’s mind. Her most recent fanfic had been posted for a day when she saw the email notifying her of a comment on it. She took a sip of water as she clicked the link.  
“Wonderful as always. And you took my suggestion on Gliese’s birth! Loved the characterization and can’t wait to see where this one goes.” Is what it said. The commenter's username was “TheRealMizar.” She nearly spat the water out.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm terrible at prices. I think they're sort of accurate, but if anyone has experiences selling things at cons and has more accurate pricing, feel free to comment.


End file.
